Trailer Reaction: ‘Community’ Season 5 – Beyond the Darkest Timeline

After a very heavily criticized fourth season, Community is set to return on January 2nd of next year with its original showrunner Dan Harmon back in control of the program. Now that we’re only three weeks away from its premiere, there’s a trailer showing us what’s in store for Greendale and our beloved study group. So, arm those paintball guns and get ready to “POP POP” cause Community‘s coming back, baby! Following his graduation from Greendale at the end of last season, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) tries to start up his own legal practice instead of going back to the one that got him disbarred in the first place. Unfortunately, it seems as if his best laid plans resulted in miserable failure and he is forced to go back to the community college he just left to take up a teaching job. From there, the general bizarre chaos of Greendale continues, complete with ass crack bandits, post apocalyptic cults and Ben Chang’s (Ken Jeong) implied bodily fluids. Watch the trailer below;

Community is one of my favorite shows on television. Sure, its had its rough patches (and most of them were in season 4), but that still doesn’t dampen the excitement of seeing all of our favorite Greendale students return, including the study group, Starburns, Magnitude and even Leonard. Looking at the trailer, there seems to obviously be plenty of the outlandish pop culture related plot lines we love about the show, with my personal favorite being Starburns in the underwear outfit from the Sean Connery sci-fi cult vehicle Zardoz. There’s even a few hints at the emotional character arcs that made the show have its stain power beyond the pop culture references with Jeff’s acceptance of his failures.

The self-aware nature of the show even has its time to shine with Troy’s Zach Braff joke, in reference to Donald Glover’s own announcement that he’ll be leaving Community five episodes into this upcoming season. That is one of my biggest curiosities of this fifth season. Troy as character was integral to how the series functioned, particularly in terms of his friendship with Abed. I’m both saddened by that fact that a talent as proficient as Glover is leaving and excited by how Harmon will weave this unfortunate news into a compelling arc for everyone on the show, though particularly for Abed. Speaking of character arcs, Jeff’s is the one that gives me a bit of worry. Sure, exploring Jeff’s failure after trying to set up his own law practice has great potential, but turning him into a teacher at Greendale seems a bit too obvious and familiar a concept to go for, especially with a unique creative force like Dan Harmon back at the helm. Then again, if it allows us to have Jeff spend time with staff members like John Oliver and Jonathan Banks, I’m cool with it.

So, what do you all think the trailer? How will Troy be phased out? Can Jeff get back on his feet? Will there be any mention of elephant in the room that is Pierece Hawthorne? Voice your thoughts in the comments below!

Thomas Mariani is a born geek, with a bit of nerd mixed in here & there. A native of the (less) swampy parts of Florida, Thomas has always been a fan of films, television & other sources of media ever since he was a child, having been raised on Jim Henson, Star Wars and the basic cable cartoons of the ’90s & ’00s. He already has experience writing and podcasting about pop culture, which you can read/listen to on sites like Widescreen Warrior, TvTalk, Horrornews.net and Doc Rotten or on Twitter as @NotTheWhosTommy